Republicans plan criminal justice push in 2025 session

by Ralph Chapoco, Alabama Reflector
January 27, 2025

Republican leaders plan to focus on criminal justice issues at the start of the 2025 legislative session, particularly those in the state’s cities.

Many cited bills that lawmakers hope to enact that pertain to gun safety, but also stiffer penalties for specific groups of people, from immigrants to individuals who commit violent crimes that resulted in someone’s death.

“From my standpoint, for the Speaker’s Office, you are going to see us address this crime issue pretty quick,” Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, told the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce earlier this month. “The governor has been hand in hand with us on this. We will see that come out pretty quick.”

Ledbetter and other lawmakers are still having discussions about the specific proposals to include in what they are naming as the “public safety” package for the session.

Lawmakers could also consider some criminal justice reform measures to balance what will likely be a heavy tough-on-crime approach.

The push comes as crime rates have declined across several categories in Alabama over the past several years.

According to the Alabama Criminal Justice Snapshot handout obtained from the Alabama Commission on Re-Entry, incidents of property crimes decreased by almost half between 2013 and 2023, from more than 3,000 per 100,000 residents to almost 1,700 per 100,000 residents. The rate in 2023 was 11% lower than the national average.

The number of crimes involving larceny decreased by 45%, burglary by 71% and motor vehicle theft fell by 6%.

Violent crime decreased by only 6% between 2013 and 2023, and by 2023, it was 8% higher than the national average. Homicide, according to the data, increased by 43%.

Ledbetter said he had discussions with Rep. Patrick Sellers, D-Birmingham, just as the 2024 legislative session was set to begin, and that he planned to meet with Hoss Mack, executive director of the Alabama Sheriff’s Association, and representatives from other law enforcement agencies would be meeting to discuss the specific proposals.

In a separate interview prior to the legislative update at the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce, Mack highlighted some of the issues in the discussions between the law enforcement community and lawmakers.

“Really, we are waiting on Speaker Ledbetter, Senate President Pro Tempore Sen. Garlan Gudger, (R-Cullman), to come up with what their priorities are going to be,” Mack said.

Several bills have already been filed to enhance criminal penalties.

HB 3, sponsored by Rep. Chip Brown, R-Hollinger’s Island, enhances penalties for undocumented immigrants who commit violent crimes.

“If they get charged with a Class D felony, if it was determined that the person is an illegal immigrant, it would automatically increase it to a Class C felony,” Mack said.

Another bill, HB 58, sponsored by Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, would make it a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $6,000, if a person in possession of a firearm does not disclose that fact to a law enforcement officer during a stop. While not disclosing firearm possession to an officer is already illegal, the bill would add a criminal penalty to the violation.

At the same Montgomery Chamber of Commerce event, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road highlighted HB 26, prefiled by Rep. Phillip Ensler, D-Montgomery, which would make it a state crime to use a “Glock switch,” which can rapidly increase the rate of fire of a semi-automatic firearm.

Ensler filed almost the same proposal during the 2024 session, which the House passed, but the session ended before final passage.

The bill gained renewed urgency in September during a mass shooting incident in Birmingham that killed at least four people and injured 17. Law enforcement believe weapons using Glock switches were involved.

“It is already illegal under federal law, but make that applicable to the state,” Barfoot said.

Mack said that the law is needed because currently a state officer submits the case to the U.S. Attorney and goes through a grand jury, followed by a trial.

“This would enable the local officers to make an arrest for that same crime, which means that you could have an additional bond, additional conditions on that individual,” he said. “The reason that this has come about is because of the number of shootings across the state that have been done with Glock switches.”

Mack also said that he thinks the “bill is going to move bipartisan.” Ensler said in a recent interview that he was “optimistic” the bill would pass.

“I know that nothing is a done deal until we actually vote,” he said. “I am not taking anything for granted. I am working very hard to garner as much support for it.”

Barfoot also cited the possibilities of amending Aniah’s Law, a constitutional amendment approved by state voters in 2022 that allows judges to deny bail for people charged with violent crime. It also gives judges discretion for deciding bail and gives prosecutors the opportunity to request a pretrial hearing to have bail denied.

Barfoot said legislators had “seen some issues come up with that.”

“We might need to amend it to include some crimes that were not initially there,” he said.

Criminal justice reform

Advocates for criminal justice reform will also bring their own legislative priorities to the attention of lawmakers.

Alabama Arise, a nonprofit in Alabama that focuses on social justice issues, wants to make retroactive a 2017 ban on judicial override, the practice of allowing judges to sentence people to death despite a jury recommending the person be given a life sentence.

The 2017 ban did not apply to people who had been sentenced to death in spite of a life imprisonment recommendation. More than 30 people are on death row because a judge overruled a jury verdict of life in prison, according to England.

Alabama Appleseed will support what the organization calls a “second chance” bill that will allow people to be resentenced if they are in prison because of a crime they committed that did not cause physical harm.

During previous sessions, England sponsored bills that championed these proposals, but they failed to gain any support from his Republican colleagues. In 2024, the House Judiciary Committee voted against a bill that would have made judicial override retroactive. Republicans on the House floor also refused to support the “second chance” bill in 2024.

A message seeking comment was left with England. A bill on the subject had not been filed as of Friday morning.

Advocates also hope to make progress with measures to reform the parole board. In 2017, according to the annual report published by the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles, the parole rate was 54%. In 2023, it had fallen to 7%.

While parole grants appeared to grow in 2024, the low parole rate has contributed to overcrowding in the state’s prison facilities and, according to criminal justice experts, is a contributing factor to the high level of violence and deaths that have taken place in the past couple of years.

The frustrations were visible during public hearings when loved ones of victims who have either died or been injured while in the custody of the Alabama Department of Corrections. However, during a Prison Oversight Committee meeting in October, lawmakers publicly expressed their frustration with Leigh Gwathney, the current chair of the parole board, peppering her with questions concerning the rate at which members of the board granted parole.

They also had concerns with what they believed are inconsistencies between the parole denials and the level of risk that individuals posed to the community.

“For people who have been following along with the Joint Prison Oversight Committee meetings for the last six for seven months, it is clear, that there is really intense and really understandable frustration among the members of the public and lawmakers, incredibly low parole rates that has been coming out of the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles,” said Katie Glenn, senior policy associate for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is currently in litigation against the state because of the lack of medical treatment and mental treatment it is providing people in prison.

England has refiled legislation aimed at reforming the parole board and allowing applicants a subsequent opportunity to be awarded parole should they be denied by the parole board.

HB 40 would create the Criminal Justice Policy Development Council that would update the classification system of individuals who are incarcerated and create a validated risk assessment that would be used by the Alabama Department of Corrections and the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles. It would require the parole board to follow its guidelines to evaluate a person’s risk to public safety based on the validated risk assessment along with other measures.

If the members’ decisions deviate from the guidelines, they must provide a written explanation about how they made their decisions when denying someone parole.

The bill states that applicants denied parole by the parole board may appeal the decision to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals.

Lawmakers from both parties have hinted at parole reform, but the changes that Republicans have suggested would be less expansive than what England is proposing.

“The percentage to me doesn’t matter,” Barfoot said about the reduced parole rate. “What matters is that those folks who are on the parole board, they look at each individual person through the eyes that they know and the background that they have, to determine whether an individual should be paroled or not.”

Barfoot filed legislation in 2024 to give parole applicants the opportunity at a parole hearing to make the case before the parole board why they should be given parole.

After a delay overnight, the House Judiciary passed Barfoot’s bill late in the session last year, but could not get through the Senate. Barfoot plans to refile the legislation.

Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Brian Lyman for questions: info@alabamareflector.com.

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